An attorney met with the Neosho County Commission Friday morning to urge them to sue over the opioid epidemic.
Attorney Pat Smith met with commission representing Morgan and Morgan, a firm handling class-action lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies involved in over-prescribing opioid medications.
Crawford, Bourbon, Cherokee and Montgomery are among Kansas counties that have filed suits.
Smith said companies used false or inaccurate studies to support sales of opioids, which turned out to be addictive, and the problem affects county budgets through law enforcement and other departments. “We want to stop them and then we want to recover for the counties,” Smith said.
He said the settlement for opioids could be the biggest lawsuit settlement ever.
“Bigger than tobacco,” he said.
(Read more: The Chanute Tribune)